Original subtitles

Yeah.

This is country engineering right there at its best.

When you can take a lawn mower

and use the back wheels, the clutch, and the shifter,

now that's pretty good engineering right there.

Hold on now.

The hell is that?

- It's gold there, boys. - Is that gold?

- Wow. Nice. - Is that gold sitting in that rock?

Holy cow. I've never seen a piece of gold like that before.

Right on, man.

That's my first Georgia gold.

Gold is everywhere.

My god.

There's an estimated $3 trillion

still undiscovered in america.

- Whoo. - And I wanna help you...

- Choose your weapon. - Find it.

- We got gold. - California gold, baby.

All you need is basic equipment...

You can get started with $15.

And the skill to decode the land.

That's a spot right there.

Yee-haw.

I'm Dave turin.

For the past 14 years,

I've mined millions of dollars of gold.

Yeah.

And now, I wanna show you where and how

I've seen it all now. Vacuum cleaner.

Everyday people are catching it.

That's insane.

So that you could be the next one to hit it big...

Boom, baby.

Right here in america's backyard.

Gold is the foundation of america.

And the opportunity to find it

is just as real now as it was in the 1800s.

You know, most people don't realize that there's gold out there.

Anybody that's sitting on their couch at home watching TV or something,

they can get up and go find gold.

There's a new gold rush happening around the country.

And everyday people like you are finding enough

to help pay the bills and take those big vacations.

I'm excited. I can go out here and,

you know, experience gold rush 2.0.

Gold is yours for the taking.

You just need to know where to look.

And would you be shocked to know

you can even find gold here in the deep south?

Right now, I'm in lumpkin county in the state of Georgia,

right in the town of dahlonega.

And I've already found gold.

Just 90 minutes north of Atlanta,

is the town of dahlonega.

Home of america's forgotten gold rush.

Between the rugged uplands of northeastern Alabama

and the mountainous forest of northwest Georgia,

is an expansive 100-mile-long gold-rich area

known as the dahlonega gold belt.

Since 1829, nearly $1 billion of gold

has come out of this region that few outsiders know about.

But don't worry,

there's an estimated $2 billion worth yet to be found.

I'm kind of excited. I'm in the mountains.

I'm in a brand new area.

Dahlonega was one of the first gold rushes in america.

Starting in the north, the chestatee river

flows for 32 miles right through the belt.

And I've been told even the most greenhorn of miners are scoring here.

And I wanna show you

where and how to get some southern gold of your own.

These mountains are actually quite large for Georgia.

I did not expect to have mountains like this,

and this rural forested area.

Hey, guys, what's going on?

- How we doing? - -Hey, what's going on, Dave?

First up, I've got a tip on rookie miners Aaron and Jeff,

who've secured access to 100-foot stretch of this gold-rich river.

Do you wanna see some of the gold

that I've got here in Georgia in the past?

- Let's see what we've got. - -All right.

The gold in Georgia is super tiny.

- Okay. - I mean, there is a high concentration

- of very small gold. - Yeah.

And so the skills, practicing to pan that stuff out,

- um, is a challenge. - Yeah.

But it's a challenge that seems to be paying off.

My goodness.

- How much you got, Jeff? - I've got 13 grams of gold here.

- My goodness. That is nice. - Whoo.

That's some beautiful gold.

At 23 carats, the gold here is some of the purest on the planet.

Which can mean up to $350 per ounce more than other regions.

And mining in shallow running sections of rivers like this one,

it's one of the easiest ways for you to get it.

This is actually my landlord's spot.

I live a couple of houses down the road.

Some of the best gold's actually down here.

But most of the chestatee river is considered private property.

I mean, it's kind of good we're on private property

because the rules are a lot more lax.

- Yeah. - So, here we can use a sluice box.

But if you're on public land, none of that.

Yeah.

- None of that. - It's just pans and shovels only.

You've gotta check the laws and get permission to go into the river.

The best way to do it, though, is if you find a landowner

who doesn't mind you prospecting in his land,

go for it.

So tell me what's going on here, you guys?

I see you got a bunch of rocks over here. Those are your tailings?

- Yessir. - Those are our tailings.

We've been washing some rocks today.

You see how close the bedrock is?

Heavy gold collects with gravels and sand

on the impenetrable bedrock layer.

Making it a great place to hunt.

- You guys been digging right in here? - -We'd been digging

- right about here. - -We're just looking for low spots.

Yeah, we flipped them boulders,

get down to that really good sticky Clay.

Have you gone, like, on the back side of this?

I haven't tried that yet, no.

- No. - -I think it gets kind of deep.

You see the way this is all kind of rolling over?

Yeah.

Like, if you get a lot of water,

you know, some of it is gonna go that way,

but that gold's gonna wanna find a spot to fall out.

Here. They call me digger Dave.

The way the textbook says,

check on the back side of riffle.

But, you know, from practical experience,

I look on both sides of something like this.

Dahlonega gold forms in quartz veins deep in hard rock.

As the rock erodes,

the gold is carried into rivers and streams.

In the river current, rocks create a natural vortex.

Slowing the flow down and trapping heavy gold

on the downstream side of the rock.

But in my experience,

the water also slows down on the upstream side.

Giving the gold another chance to fall.

So, when you're mining rocky spots on a river,

- dig all around. - The gold could be everywhere.

Let's dig some rock.

- Let's do it. - All right.

Hopefully, we dig up some nuggets.

- That's my hope. - That would be nice.

All right, let's see what this primo material Dave got us has got.

Yeah, even down here, it's doing well.

You're retaining some of the heavies.

It's looking good.

Aaron and Jeff are using a simple $300 river sluice.

The gold mixed with gravels and sand

is fed through the top of the sluice.

Carried by the flow of the river water,

the heavy gold naturally drops to the bottom,

where it's caught with other heavy particles in the grooved mats.

And the lighter, worthless material washes back into the river.

This sluice method has barely changed in almost 200 years.

But I think there's always room for a little improvement.

Why don't you guys put in a little pump?

You get a little more consistent water,

- you can set your sluice box. - Always wanted to.

- What you got set up, it's great... - Right.

- But you lose a little bit of control. - -Yeah.

But if you've got a pump,

you can change your pitch.

And you know exactly how much water's coming in.

With this, you're kind of hit and miss, right?

Yeah.

Like right now, you could be flushing fine gold.

All right. Here we go, boys.

Hopefully, there's some gold in here?

There it is, Dave. What do you think?

Nice. That's good-looking gold right there.

- Yessir, yes sir. - Good job, guys.

Thanks a lot.

That's 30 bucks from just a couple buckets of dirt.

Add a pump, and you could make enough to cover rent each month.

- Yessir. Yessir. Appreciate you coming. - It's been a great day.

- Yeah. - Well, thank you.

I mean, he's a great teacher.

One of the things that he really taught me

was using the outside and inside of the natural riffles.

I think it's really gonna be good to be able to use that

on a day-to-day basis.

- This is my gym. - It's great exercise.

The river is peaceful.

I might only make six dollars to $10 of gold each time,

but that's cheaper than most people's gym membership.

I actually earn money.

I really enjoy seeing young people out here doing it.

Because that's the next generation of miners.

I believe they've got enough energy,

enough knowledge, enough wisdom

that they can take it to the next level.

If they want to.

I think what they really ought to do is get a little pump,

set it up, so they can be more consistent.

I think they'll find more gold.

Well, they got themselves an amazing spot here

because, you know, he knows the landowner.

The landowner's like, "yeah, come on down."

So, if you can find a piece of private land

and the landowner say, "go,"

it's the best way to go here in Georgia.

Coming up... Joey, you ready to get some gold?

Let's go, dad!

I'm gonna show you

how going deeper can get big gold quicker.

Find some of that dahlonega gold.

Whoo!

This is kind of fun.

Red dirt roads, and somebody else mined it.

That's what we're looking for.

I'm in the mountains.

There's three different mines

that were actively mining here.

And we're going down into the creek right next to it.

So that's a great sign.

I'm in the dahlonega gold belt,

showing you some of the many places in the south

you can find your own pot of gold.

And the signs are everywhere, so pay attention.

I've seen a lot of red dirt, which is mineralization.

There's white quartz sticking out right there.

I'm seeing everything you wanna see.

I'm headed to a stretch of the gold-rich etowah river in auraria,

just seven miles south of dahlonega,

the center of the regional gold rush.

To show you that with a little investment,

you can maximize your gold.

We're going down into the creek,

and I'm meeting a guy named Greg.

He dredges. Kind of excited to see him.

- Hey, guys, what's going on? - All right.

It's a nice little dredge.

Dredging on the weekends,

Greg has found a great way to spend time with his son,

and boost his salary with gold.

The cool part is, I get to dredge with Joey.

I love it, man.

Joey, you ready to get some gold?

Let's go, dad!

So, drag it over the shoal,

and then we're gonna set up at the bottom.

We'll dredge in the center.

- Probably... - We're gonna dredge in the center below.

Right. So we're gonna work our way up,

so that way we can just toss rocks behind us.

We're in the dahlonega belt,

and this river's been washing gold

out of these mountains now for millions of years.

It's an amazing spot on this river.

You've got calm water,

and then you've really got a little bit of a waterfall.

It's a perfect storm for gold settling out.

Gold is carried in a current,

but when the river slows down,

the gold drops on to the riverbed.

This is a big dredge. I've never dredged with a six-inch.

Six inch in diameter, it moves a lot of material.

This is the real deal right here.

Greg's setup cost $7,000,

but you can get a smaller one starting at 2,000 bucks.

Go do some dredging.

Find some of that dahlonega gold.

Whoo!

We're gonna be moving a lot of rocks and sucking everything up.

And the gold's gonna be down deep.

And the more we pull the rocks out,

the deeper we're going.

I like how hard-packed the material is.

Like, it's getting much tougher to break up, yeah.

Yeah.

- You gotta really work those rocks out. - -Yeah.

Which kind of means that it's been there for a while.

Yeah.

Like most dredges,

Greg's creates a powerful suction that vacuums gold and gravel

from the riverbed up to the sluice,

where the gold is captured in ridges.

But Greg has a secret weapon to give him an edge.

With a customized high-pressure hose,

Greg can loosen ancient gold-rich dirt,

that is wedged in the cracks and crevices,

right into the suction hose.

All right, I'm gonna shut it down.

Shut it down.

Now, let's see what we got.

How'd you get started doing this to begin with?

When I was about 16, I used to buy dirt.

- Probably in a bag kind of thing? Yeah. - And I... in a bag,

'cause they're concentrates.

And I would take 'em home and pan 'em out in the creek.

When I turned 18,

I joined the army and I left home.

And all my belongings kind of traveled with my parents

as they moved around over the years.

After the army, I got married about 13 years ago.

And when I was going through my divorce 10 years ago,

I needed to find something to do

that was just for me.

Everything I did was for him.

- I got a lot of respect for that, Greg. - I appreciate that.

That's impressive 'cause it ain't easy.

- I've raised three kids... - Yeah.

But I've raised them with a wife.

- Right. - To raise a son all by yourself,

- that's hard work. - I got a lot of respect

- for single moms out there, too, like... - Yeah, I know.

I got a nice 23-gram nugget couple months ago.

We were just on a cruise.

That trip was basically

supported by my gold mining habit.

- That's cool. - Yeah.

It worked out really good.

This is your primary catch for your fines.

- Yup. - And most of your fines

- are gonna get caught down here. - -Okay.

Stuff's out.

This is my cleanup sluice.

This is what I run my concentrates through.

Greg is doing something I've never seen before.

Powering his sluice with the motor on his dredge.

Talk about a cleanup on a dredge.

But a simple river sluice would work just as well.

I'm starting to... That looks pretty good.

We've got some fine gold in there.

- We got big stuff. We got good material. - Nice.

Nice.

You know, I find fine gold all over north Georgia,

but to find that nice, big, chunky stuff,

you've gotta come to dahlonega.

How much gold do you think we got?

There's over two grams. What do you think?

I mean, you're looking at two to three grams an hour, maybe.

I wouldn't wait but a few days to have an ounce.

Working like this every weekend for a year

could haul in over $65,000.

Dahlonega gold.

- I love it, man. - That's it.

Greg and Joey, what a pair.

To me, that was a perfect spot

to go gold mining, and Greg knew it.

There's still gold in Georgia.

Later, Greg wants to show me a secret weapon

that's giving him even bigger gold.

But until then, we've got more dahlonega gold to uncover.

Coming up... We don't know what lies beneath.

I'm gonna show you that a gold mine...

Wow, that is impressive!

Could be right beneath your feet.

The geology is changing.

You can see some white rocks,

and it looks like quartz.

I'm in the heart of the Georgia section

of the dahlonega gold belt,

home to america's forgotten gold rush.

Beautiful part of the country.

Legend has it that in 1849

on the balcony of this courthouse,

in an attempt to stop miners leaving for California,

the mayor shouted the famous line...

"There's gold in them thar hills."

And there's still gold to be found everywhere,

if you know where to look.

There's a lady here that wants to show me something.

It relates to mining.

So, we're gonna go into

a ice cream sweet shop and see what we've got.

Good morning.

- Good morning. - Hi, I'm Dave.

Hi, Dave. So nice to meet you finally in person.

- What's your name? - Margaret.

Hi, Margaret.

I'm Margaret, and this is my husband, Jay.

- Hi, Jay. - Hi, Dave. Nice to meet you.

I don't normally come into the sweet shops looking for gold,

but... You gave me a call and you said

you have something unusual you wanna show me?

- Yes. - Indeed we do. It's a hand-dug shaft.

- Got it. - It drops 30 something feet down.

- Dang. Yeah. - Yes.

But we don't know what lies beneath.

Let's go see what you got.

- Yeah. - Okay.

Refrigerator and ice maker.

I'm gonna pull this out here.

All right.

- Which way we going? Straight ahead? Okay. - It's coming straight out.

And we have a little door there.

Wow, that is impressive!

Whoo. My goodness.

Any chance we could grab that

waterproof camera and drop it down?

Right there you can see some of the holes.

And those holes were probably there

for building some type of a platform,

so they could continue to dig

to keep going down.

They found gold here in 1828,

and chances are this shaft was probably

driven in there in 1830s or 1840s.

So we're gonna keep going down.

And now, the geology is changing.

You can see some white rocks and it looks like quartz.

Those look a lot more like river rocks to me.

They shafted down to an ancient riverbed.

And where there's bigger rocks, there's bigger gold.

In my opinion, that's the mine shaft.

Goes to show you folks,

if you live in an old gold rush town, check your basement.

Gold could literally be under your feet, too.

But my question is, why is it underneath of a building?

Any idea?

Well, mining was prohibited on the square.

It always was, and still is.

So probably they were digging the shaft in private.

- In secret. - Interesting.

Thanks for showing me.

Those old timers found a way to get their hands on the gold, no matter what.

But over 150 years later, a family is proving they left plenty behind.

Next, I'm off to the north Georgia forest

on the outskirts of lincolnton.

An area littered with historic gold mines.

So we're here to see a father-son operation,

they're out here prospecting.

I've heard Tim and bail lie have a unique piece of machinery

to double down on the gold on this 5-acre claim.

- Hello. Hello. - Hey, Dave.

- Good to see you. - Dave. Nice to meet you.

- Dave. I'm Tim. - You Tim?

What do you got going here, Tim?

Now, normally I see in a dredge, like your sluice is on pontoons.

I kind of like this. This is kind of like a hybrid, isn't it?

Correct. This is a, high banker dredge combo...

- Yep. - Where we can do both.

Tim and bail lie mine both the stream

and the ground around it at the same time.

While Tim operates the dredge that sucks up gold rich river gravels,

bail lie loads riverbank dirt straight into an attached hopper.

I'm not big on doing all the shoveling. That's a lot of work.

But my son, bail lie, he's the one that likes to shovel.

The hopper is a pre wash system

that washes and separates out the bigger rocks,

allowing the smaller dirt and the gold to be caught in the sluice mats.

So, Tim, how much money you got tied up in all this?

Well, I've got approximately about $3,500 invested in it

with the, the unit itself and the engine.

But an entry level system will set you back just 1500 bucks.

You can get started with $15 and a gold pan.

You know you don't have to spend 3000 to get going.

Now you can get out in nature and get some good gold.

Are you getting any gold?

We hit what we call a blue gray Clay layer.

Yeah.

That's just decomposed bedrock that's turned into Clay.

That gold will never penetrate that.

So he's skimming all the rocks off right down to that bedrock.

And that's where your gold will be sitting.

I'd say this is the perfect two-person setup.

That's the first time I've seen somebody double teaming

high banking and dredging at the same time.

So they're maximizing their sluice time. I really like it.

I definitely think there's a lot of gold left in Georgia.

It shows that these mines were active up until the '50s, '60s

and then they just walked away from it.

So you know that there is gold still in here.

You just have to find it.

What are you looking for?

I'm kind of looking in the bank to see

if there's, like, a little gravel layer.

A lot of times people think plaster is only in the streambeds,

but it's not. The plaster could be up here as that,

you know, millions of years ago, that river ran right there,

and then everything falls down on top, buries it,

well, it's got river gravels on those benches.

Do you ever test pan stuff?

I would suggest you just pan it.

Because if you consistently pan the same size pan

and you run three or four pans, you're not getting anything,

- let's move to another spot. Yeah. - That makes sense.

Regular test panning will allow bail lie

to hone in on the richest gold spots.

Legwork that will no doubt help dad.

Three years ago, my wife took me down to the hospital

and they come out and said, "hey, Tim, you're having a... A heart attack."

So, quadruple bypass.

- How are you feeling? - Feeling great?

- Back to 100%. - Good for you.

My advice to you is

- be patient with this old codger. - -Yes.

'Cause when I was your age, I wasn't that patient with my dad.

And I regret it at times. I really do. My dad passed away...

- Take the time... - Appreciate it.

And appreciate what you have when you have it.

- You're happy with that? - I'm happy.

Well, if we don't find anything, it's your fault.

- 'Cause you didn't clean it out. - There you go.

To separate the gold from the worthless sand

these guys have got another neat piece of kit.

How much this little setup worth?

About $85, and that's it.

Runs off of a little pump...

You can buy this pump at your local hardware store.

- Exactly. Exactly. - Yeah.

Let's turn on the water right there and get a little...

- Look at that. Kind of cute little sluice. - Yeah.

The light particles flow down into his bucket so he's not losing anything.

And the gold's staying in the little riffles.

And we can do this at home, out on our back deck.

- Turn down the... - Slow it down just a little bit.

I just don't wanna wash it out.

That looks a little bit better.

The right water flow is important.

Too fast and it washes gold off the end.

Too slow and there's not enough flow

to wash out all the worthless dirt.

That's the quickest cleanup I think I've ever done.

- Wow, that was pretty slick. - Exactly.

Dave's got the magic touch right there,

- you know, with the tapping. - Well,

you don't know how many times I've done this.

Well, that's pretty good, you guys.

I think they're in a good spot.

I really like the fact that, you know,

Tim is using this operation with his son as rehabilitation.

It's pretty cool that he's out here and he's enjoying himself again.

With this type of operation, you could haul in $1,000 a weekend.

I gotta say, you guys got a good thing going.

I like hanging out with, you know, dads and sons

that get along because it's family.

Exactly.

- It's been a pleasure, all right. - Thank you. Thank you.

Coming up.

I show you how scaling up...

Doesn't have to break the bank.

That loud noise. It's like a money machine.

I'm in america's deep south in the dahlonega gold belt.

A 100-mile little known stretch of golden promised land.

Now I'm heading out of Georgia towards lineville, Alabama...

Where I found a one-stop shop for gold hunters

to hone their skills and make some money.

Jeff? I'm Dave.

- Good to meet you. - -You got some gold down there?

I hope so. We're looking for it.

Jeff landrum owns and manages Alabama gold camp,

where over 600 members have access to its 200-acre claim.

What do you do here? So you're digging payout for...

For the people that are up here high banking?

We're running for that and our trommel operation.

You mind if I get down in the hole and see

- what your pay looks like? - Go ahead, man.

I would like to pan it right there.

You got that contact zone where the gravels meet in that...

You got Clay bedrock.

That gold falls down in there, it's rotten.

It's exactly what I always look for.

Changes in the color of the ground like this

can indicate high mineralization and gold.

So always be on the lookout when you prospect a new area.

How did you start all this?

I was doing a little prospecting

about 20 miles from here in goldville.

And, I lived next door to a church.

Preacher knew what I was into, and somebody in his church was getting divorced

and they wanted to know if they knew anybody

would be interested in buying a gold mine.

That's how I started.

How much you charge people for being here?

You can come in and spend the day.

Our pans, sluice, and that'll take $5.

- What? - $5.

$5 is cheap.

I got a lot of people that's been coming here,

before they leave, they'll hug you

and tell you they love you, and that means a lot.

Here, members can sluice or dredge

and keep the gold that they find.

No equipment costs and no need for permits.

It's as cheap as playing the lottery

with better odds of a good payout.

Well, Jeff, I got gold in the pan.

This is the first Alabama gold I've ever seen.

- That's pretty good. - -So let's go throw some dirt.

Back in an excavator. It feels good. It's been a while.

Jeff's been digging this site for 20 years,

all to feed the beast.

Good looking pay right there.

A massive, self-assembled, gold catching monster.

What do you call this now?

- We call it goldzilla. - Goldzilla?

- Yeah. - -Why'd you get that name?

I don't have a good answer for that.

- Come about. - All right.

- Is this your feeder? - Yes.

Put some material now, it'll get us there.

- So that's just all washing down? - -It is.

But mostly we use this hose and that fine nozzle

where people can be involved in operation, that's what it's for.

It's for the people that prospect here, and they get to run it

- and they get to keep the gold. - Nice.

So they all get to split it?

Yes.

- Yeah. - We all split it.

Where'd you buy this thing from?

I acquired several different pieces of old mining equipment.

And just thought one day I just started putting them together down here.

I got a piece here and a piece there.

"A piece here..."

There's a Johnny cash song about that.

- Yeah. - What's this fella doing down?

So, she'll ball the dirt down

I did all the hard stuff.

You're the young guy so, you got to toss the rocks?

I I like that.

- Jeff, you ready to fire this up? - Ready, man.

All right, let's go.

Goldzilla, it's a huge rock washing machine

to catch all the gold hidden in the dirt.

The dirt is loaded into the plant where jets of water break it down.

In the giant spinning trommel,

the rocks are washed clean and discarded off the end.

And the smaller material and gold passed into the sluice where it's caught.

Goldzilla is a monster,

and trommels make excellent wash plants whatever their size.

And with a little bit of ingenuity,

you could build your own for just 50 bucks.

I love that.

This is exactly the background I came from.

Shakers, streams, excavators, dump trucks.

I love the pan, but this makes me feel at home.

That loud noise, it's like a money machine.

Four hours of running later

in Jeff's gold room, only the smallest and heaviest material is left.

Tiny rocks, black sand and gold.

So, this is his finishing table.

It shakes, and as the water washes down,

the light particles go down here.

The gold and the heavy stay up here.

You can kind of see how it's staying in here.

And then they'll go into these trays.

And then down here is his bucket.

So he's not losing anything.

Anything that spills over, he's still catching in there.

It's going to take a while.

George is living proof that you don't have to spend big

to get some Alabama gold.

My gold I found over the course of last year.

Well, that's awesome.

There's gold in Alabama.

- I don't know if you know that. - I do now.

That's pretty nice, though.

Now, if you've hit a big spot, right,

you pull ten ounces of gold, then you're gonna quit mining?

No, I'll quit work and go mining and full-time.

Jeff's run the finer material through his gold table.

So let's see what we got.

Well, that's it, Jeff.

It looks pretty good to me, man.

- I think you've got half an ounce there. - Pretty close to it.

- That's a good run. - Yeah.

Nice, clean gold.

I really appreciate you having us out, we get to see your operation.

- We feel like it's a special place. - It is special.

It was great to have Dave here.

We were on about almost four hours.

I wanna think it was somewhere about half an ounce.

We did a pretty good run.

Jeff's got a great program going here.

He's got a great wash plant, so he charges them five bucks,

and everybody can come out here and

have a good time, find some gold.

You know, pay a little bit of the gas bill and a little bit of the food bill.

It's a beautiful spot.

Coming up

I show you how to go big on a backyard budget.

What the hell we got going here? This looks like a... a hood.

Yep, that's my old garden tractor there.

This all from a garden tractor?

- And these are the wheels? - Yep.

You've got to be kidding me.

This crisson gold mine and mill has been here since 1847.

I'm going back in time to see some 19th century gold engineering in action.

A stamp mill was the original way to crush ore.

So this would be the first time I see one

that's actually running and functioning.

It is actually the only one of two

that still operates in the United States.

So here's your ore,

and what you'd have to do is pre-split it

because, really, all the ore is going in here,

so it has to be a certain size.

We can't really use any type of oil or grease because that makes gold float.

Molasses.

One.

That's a lot of power.

That's gold.

Dahlonega belt still has a lot of gold in it.

That's pretty cool.

To me, that's amazing.

If you're like most Americans,

you probably didn't know there's gold for the taking here in the south.

But the dahlonega belt is rich in gold,

and I'm showing you where and how everyday people are getting it.

Dahlonega gold. I love it, man.

Now I'm heading back to the etowah river

where dredger Greg wants to show us how to scale up on a back yard budget.

He's got a small trommel going,

so I'm kind of excited to see him.

Greg's turned his gold hunting to dry land.

And he's got a brand new operation with son Joey,

and friend Brad Tom,

what we're gonna show you now is a lot bigger.

You've got bigger equipment, bigger trommel.

I don't tell everybody to go out and buy this equipment to start out.

This is a step up.

Greg and Brad use yellow iron they already own.

But you can rent your own for as little as 500 bucks a day.

Just make sure you're qualified to use it.

So this is the work in progress.

Hold on now.

What the hell we got going here? This looks like a... a hood.

Yep, that's my old garden tractor there.

This is off a garden tractor?

- And these are the wheels? - Yep.

You've got to be kidding me.

Just missing the deck and the front wheels.

I'm not going to say it's hillbilly,

but I'm going to say it's country engineering, right?

- Yeah. - That's pretty awesome, you guys.

I got to ask you, what do you use for a feeder here?

Well, it's your old school satellite dish.

No way.

So this is an old satellite dish

- that you just made into a feeder? - -Yeah.

- Wow. - Something temporary.

That there's some backyard engineering.

It works. It's working pretty decent for what it is.

Are you ready to fire it up?

- Let's go. - All right.

Yeah!

That's pretty damn good, you guys.

The trommel's going. I like it.

This is smooth.

Got water.

Just like goldzilla, this trommel is a huge washing machine

that separates gold from the rocks and dirt.

Water from the pre wash helps the pay dirt on its way.

Big rocks are dumped out the end

and the smallest material drops through a screen

and into a gold catching sluice.

These guys really know what they're doing. I mean, they're on the gold.

Um, they're starting to get big chunks of rounded quartz.

They've got a makeshift wash plant.

But I feel like they know where the gold is.

The thing I would do is move this down and

it gives you a little more sluice box because you're not even...

You're missing that much. You're missing six inches of your sluice box.

The more sluice you got the better off you are.

You see how the water... It was flowing pretty fast off and shooting down

and it makes like a rooster tail,

and it's blowing this area out?

- Yeah, a piece of... Here, I'll show you. - Sure.

Is this somebody's shirt that they want?

It's Brad's. You're good.

I'm just gonna give you an idea of what I'd do.

Okay?

Put a piece of belt, something that's flexible

and just put it, like, right there.

- See how it calms it? - Got you.

We're just modifying, we're just putting a damper on the sluice box.

It's got a little bit of turbulent water.

You put that belt on there and it'll just knock it down a little bit,

and, it calms the water and gives the gold a chance to settle out.

Rocking and rolling!

Four hours later, it's time to see if Greg's country engineered trommel

and my modifications have paid off.

Water's off. Everything's good.

Hey, Brad, let's go ahead and let's see what the cleanup looks like.

Hold on now, what the hell is that?

- It's gold there, boys. - Is that gold?

- Wow, nice. - -Is that gold sitting in that rock?

It's six or seven pieces, like, big pieces.

It is, right?

- That's awesome. - Wow.

But it's not just sitting on it, right.

- It's part of the rock. - Yeah.

Yeah, it's in it, for sure.

I think that thing's full of gold, isn't it?

They're right at the source of this gold.

I've seen a lot of nuggets, but I've never seen gold

sticking to the parent rocks, and it's pretty special.

This is dahlonega gold belt gold.

They say it's 95 to 98 % pure.

That's amazing.

Hold on, Brad. What is that right there?

It is. It looks like a little picker.

- That's a picker right there. - That is a picker.

Wow.

That's probably the biggest piece we've found.

Maybe I'm good luck.

- That's it. I'll take it. - Maybe.

You're coming back tomorrow, right?

By calming down the water,

it has maximized his sluice

and increased the chance of catching gold.

There was a lot of gold coming out of the dahlonega belt

and there's still gold left for the future.

Hopefully, the miners I've met along the way have inspired you

like they have me.

Let's go, dad!

This region has flown under the radar,

but gold and southern hospitality is alive and well.

You guys got a good thing going.

And if you decide to come try your luck here, who knows?

There could be a pot of gold waiting for you

at the end of the dahlonega rainbow.

Since I last saw them,

Tim and bail lie have been hot spotting the river.

Well, we've taken a lot of your tips.

As you can see, the test panning has proved successful.

We'll definitely be coming back with the dredge.

Jeff and Aaron have powered up.

Well, we've got the pump Dave suggested.

And now we've got the perfect water flow.

And we've been digging in a spot Dave recommended.

And now we're on the gold. So, thanks, Dave.

And Greg and Joey have upped their ounces.

We've gone ahead and implemented the changes

that you recommended on the trommel.

This is our total for the season.

- That's almost $16,000. - Good job, guys.

Now it's on to another backyard on the hunt for big gold.